Extending a Hand
by The Wiccan Warrior
Summary: A follow up of "Memories and Voices". Bunny couldn't let it go, and sets out to make sure Jack is okay. What he learns will shock you all.


Bunny couldn't let go of what he had seen last week, he wouldn't.

The others seemed okay with letting the spirit be, whenever he brought it up to them, saying Jack would come to them if it happened again, and they shouldn't pressure the boy so much.

But Bunny couldn't get the thought out of his head.

_What if he still doesn't trust us? Does he know he can?_

Bunny set out to make sure the boy knew.

It was summer, a time when neither he, nor the boy did anything in relation to their duties, or so he thought.

He had forgotten that the summer was when the southern hemisphere was due for snow.

So here he was in Tasmania, looking for the winter spirit.

He had to be careful not to be seen, but he followed his instincts and eventually found the boy lounging on a tree limb, staring up at the full moon.

Bunny made sure Jack didn't hear his approach before getting any closer.

Jack was frowning up at the moon, staff clutched in his hands, Bunny observed as he got closer.

He didn't have that smile all the guardians remembered, and in that instance, Bunny knew he made the right choice in seeking the boy out.

"Hey there Frostbite! How are ya?" Bunny knew the answer, but he also knew Jack was lying.

Jack painted a grin on his face that looked a little more forced than usual, and sat up properly to peer down at the pooka.

"Kangaroo! What do I owe this visit too?" Jack called down from his perch good naturedly.

"Well ya are in my backyard Frostbite. Figured I'd check in on ya, see how Australia is treatin' ya," Bunny made up the excuse on the spot, ignoring the jibe, knowing it was just Jack trying to get a rise out of him.

Jack shoved himself off of the tree limb and landed nimbly in front of the rabbit.

"It's treating me fine. Look, I even managed to bring a bit of snow." Jack said excitedly, gesturing to the light amount of snow on the ground around them.

"I noticed." Bunny said in an appreciative tone as he looked around. Then he cleared his throat. It was time to business.

He had thought about how he would bring this up, and then he thought that the direct approach would be best.

"Jack, ya might want to take a seat mate. We need to talk." Bunny said gravely.

Jack looked at him curiously. "I knew there was more to the story than just coming to see how I like Australia. What's wrong Cottontail?" Jack asked, not sitting, but at least not running away either.

"It's about you mate. Well, the memories that we viewed is more to the point." Bunny started.

"Hey! You're not suppose to bring those up!" Jack said as he backed away, making for an escape.

"No, I'm not suppose to make fun of ya. And I'm not. I honestly wanna bring this up to ya." Bunny said as he stepped forward to make up the distance that the teen was trying to put between them.

"Come on Jack, it's just a talk." Bunny pleaded.

Jack stopped and pulled his staff in closer, hugging it to his body.

"Alright," Jack said, not looking at Bunny, but that didn't deter the spirit of Easter.

There was hope after all.

Bunny lowered himself to the snow covered ground, not quite sitting, but no longer towering over Jack either.

"We chose to watch the memories of when ya first joined the guardians," Bunny began.

Jack stiffened, but otherwise did nothing else.

"We heard ya thoughts mate. And I'm worried about ya. Carrying around that kinda guilt can do bad things to a person," Bunny kept his eyes on Jack the entire time.

"Well it's not like you helped any Rabbit! So why do you care all of a sudden?!" Jack snapped back.

Bunny was expecting this though.

"I know I didn't help you in the past. But it's in the past, and no matter how much I wish I could change it, there is nothing I can do to change it. But I can change the future still. I care because outta all the guardians, you're the I care about the most. Don't get me wrong, I care about the others, but you're the closest thing I got to a best mate, and I don't want to lose you." Bunny said this all without raising his voice above normal speaking level.

"Well you don't have to worry anymore Kangaroo. I'm fine. I don't think like that anymore. Besides, immortal beings can't die anyway." Jack smiled, like he expected to reassure Bunny, probably trying any route he could, to make the conversation end sooner.

But Bunny froze.

"Jack, have you tried to kill yourself?" Bunny was horrified. How did they not see this before. It completely shut down his thoughts about where he was going to steer the conversation to next.

"I- No! Come on Bunny, you know me! Does that sound like something I would do?" Jack said, his body language radiating with unease.

"What did you try Jack." Bunny asked seriously. Jack looked into his eyes, but couldn't read anything from the rabbit.

"I... I tried to stay in the area of the equator once. It was about 50 years ago or so. I figured that if I was a winter spirit, then me and the sun couldn't get along real well. All that happened was that I sweated a lot. I didn't try anything after that." Jack looked at the ground, ashamed at himself.

Bunny wanted to get up and hug the spirit, but he knew it was too soon.

"Have ya thought about anything like that since?" Bunny asked.

"No." Jack said a little too quickly. Bunny wanted to pursue it, but knew that it would be a bad idea.

"Alright Jack," Bunny said gently, "Thanks for telling me. I know it's one of those things that's hard to tell someone."

Jack relaxed his shoulders a little, Bunny noted.

"Bunny, I don't want to talk about this anymore." Jack said, backing away again.

"Okay, we don't have to if you don't want to." Bunny said gently, getting up slowly, so as not to frighten the boy with quick sudden movements.

"But Jack, before ya go off I want you to know, that that offer to come by my Warren still stands. If you ever need to talk, or if you do start thinking like that again, doesn't matter, day or night, you can come by and talk to me, okay?" Bunny hoped he was making it through to the boy.

"I don't need it... but thanks Bunny," Jack looked up at him and nodded.

Bunny nodded back, and then smiled. "C'mere you" Bunny said before pulling the boy into a hug.

Jack laughed and squirmed, but stopped when Bunny didn't let go.

"Anytime Jack, I mean that." Bunny said as he let go.

"Alright Cottontail, well, I suppose I should probably get going if I want to get a decent coverage on Acova before the morning. See ya around!" Jack had his trademark grin, this time looking much more natural, as he jumped up into the wind and flew off, leaving Bunny behind.

Bunny watched Jack until he was nothing but a speck in the sky.

He could only hope that Jack would take him up on the offer, because he knew that Jack still had thoughts like that, that kind of thing wasn't something that just went away because you wished well hard that it did.

Bunny had extended his hand to pull Jack out of the abyss he had created, now all Jack had to do was grab it.

_V_V_V_

So here is my second story. It I hope that everyone that like the first story is not disappointed by this one.

There may be one more to this little mini-series before it's done.

Once again, if you can provide feedback to help me improve, I would appreciate it.

Thank you, and have a nice day.


End file.
